
That Night's Train
Ahmad Akbarpour(Author)
Groundwood Books Ltd ,Canada (Publisher)
Will be published approx. on 15. November 2012
Book
Hardback
96 pages
978-1-55498-169-4 (ISBN)
Description
On a train trip with her grandmother, young Banafsheh meets a woman who reminds her of her dead mother. The woman is a teacher and a writer, and she promises she will call Banafsheh and come and tell her stories. Later, the teacher weaves the encounter into a story that she tells to the children in her classroom. The children are entranced by the story and imagine how it will turn out. Surely, they say, the teacher will call the little girl.
But the teacher never calls, though Banafsheh waits faithfully by the phone and refuses even to go out to play. Meanwhile, the teacher is disconcerted by her class's reaction, and she agonizes over how to end her story. As a writer, she feels that the story is more important than anything else, and that the ending must be exciting and eventful, no matter what. Perhaps Banafsheh will even have to become ill and die?
In the end, the teacher does visit Banafsheh, but finds that it is too little too late. Banafsheh is very angry with the teacher, and hurt. Finally, the teacher makes the biggest sacrifice she knows -- her manuscript -- in order to save the friendship.
This is a thought-provoking and emotionally powerful novel that raises intriguing and child-friendly questions about how real life and stories are interwoven, who owns stories, and whether they can ever truly disappear.
But the teacher never calls, though Banafsheh waits faithfully by the phone and refuses even to go out to play. Meanwhile, the teacher is disconcerted by her class's reaction, and she agonizes over how to end her story. As a writer, she feels that the story is more important than anything else, and that the ending must be exciting and eventful, no matter what. Perhaps Banafsheh will even have to become ill and die?
In the end, the teacher does visit Banafsheh, but finds that it is too little too late. Banafsheh is very angry with the teacher, and hurt. Finally, the teacher makes the biggest sacrifice she knows -- her manuscript -- in order to save the friendship.
This is a thought-provoking and emotionally powerful novel that raises intriguing and child-friendly questions about how real life and stories are interwoven, who owns stories, and whether they can ever truly disappear.
Reviews / Votes
That Night's Train is a satisfying story that weaves together fiction and reality in a unique way. -- Tara Stieglitz * CM * Reading and writing both become their own characters in Akbarpour's sly prose, as he blends and blurs what might be real-life characters with their unreliable narrators to create quite the literary adventure. * Smithsonian * ... perfect... a story from life experiences. -- Lisa Wright * Library Media Connection *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Ontario
Canada
Target group
Children/juvenile
Interest Age: From 9 years
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
Black-and-white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 193 mm
Width: 137 mm
Thickness: 10 mm
Weight
204 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-55498-169-4 (9781554981694)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
One of Iran's foremost writers, Ahmad Akbarpour lives in Shiraz, Iran. ISABELLE ARSENAULT is an internationally renowned children's book illustrator. Her award-winning books include Jane, the Fox and Me and Louis Undercover by Fanny Britt, Spork and Virginia Wolf by Kyo Maclear, Cloth Lullaby by Amy Novesky (BolognaRagazzi Award) and Colette's Lost Pet, which marked her debut as an author. She has won the Governor General's Award for Children's Literature three times, and three of her picture books have been named as New York Times Best Illustrated Books of the Year. Isabelle lives in Montreal, Quebec, with her family.